


to know all the things

by aalphard



Series: banana fish prompt fills [5]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: 5+1 Things, ??? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Cuddling, Forehead Kisses, Holding Hands, M/M, Not Beta Read, Relationship Study, Secret Relationship, Shorter Wong is a Great Friend, shorter is so done with those two bless his soul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:07:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27122275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aalphard/pseuds/aalphard
Summary: He likes beingShorter and Ash and Eiji.He likes his warm hugs and the soothing tone of his voice. He likes the dinners and the thousand pastries he bakes when he’s nervous. He likes his giggle and he likes how he teases Ash just as much. He likes beingShorter and Ash and Eiji.But maybe, he thinks, now they’re not reallyShorter and Ash and Eiji.Now they’reAsh and Eiji, Shorter on the side.or the five times they hid their relationship (or tried to) and the one time they didn’t, told through the eyes of a very, very pissed off shorter wong who just so happened to be their main (and favorite) third wheel.
Relationships: Ash Lynx & Shorter Wong, Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji, Okumura Eiji & Shorter Wong
Series: banana fish prompt fills [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727179
Comments: 12
Kudos: 124
Collections: Banana Fish





	to know all the things

**Author's Note:**

> heavily inspired by one of the talks i had with mar the other day, this one's on her y'all
> 
> based on this prompt:
>
>> we always tease you guys about how you look like a couple but instead of laughing or doing normal stuff you just grin at each other and i’m getting vry vry suspicious
> 
> also! kinda fucked up the prompt? hell yes!! wouldn't be me if it wasn't distorted even a little bit. 

_because you can't_ _  
understand  
without first  
knowing.  
you must know  
what has happened before  
what is happening now  
and it takes precious time  
to accumulate this information._

_([by a m a n d a on hellopoetry)](https://hellopoetry.com/poem/1754069/to-know-all-the-things/) _

* * *

**1.**

It all starts with a cup of coffee and a sugar cookie from the cafeteria.

It starts with sparkling round eyes and shy smiles, blushing cheeks and uncertain touches. It starts with sweet voices and nicknames he’s never heard before, nicknames he surely would’ve noticed coming from his best friend’s mouth, from the guy he’s known since he was a toddler, nicknames in a sickeningly sweet voice, a voice he never heard before. It starts with loving eyes and a disgusting giggle.

“Since when are you guys like that?” is what he asks, crossing his arms in front of his chest because, well, it would’ve been nice to know your two best friends suddenly started kissing each other.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ash replies with a shrug.

Shorter thinks he saw it wrong – the swift, almost unnoticeable brush of their fingertips, the way their eyes seemed to convey so, so much in a matter of seconds, the smiles they shared that seemed to hold so many different emotions all at once and _oh, Lord, he was going to throw up_. Not that he had anything against the fact that his two best friends were now probably doing the nasty behind closed doors and who knows where else, the fact that they were now trying to hide the not-so-subtle brush of their knees under the table because, well, it’s not like they were anything but huge men who also happened to be as gracious as newborn giraffes, is what Shorter thinks. The shared, knowing glances and the way they giggled when no one had even said a thing made something start bubbling inside his stomach, uneasiness crawling up, up, up through his bloodstream.

“You guys are acting weird,” he says.

“No, we’re not?” is Eiji’s turn to reply, sipping his coffee while his eyes travel from Shorter to Ash and then back to Shorter, his cheeks probably a bit redder than usual. “You might be tired from your exams, that might be why you think something’s wrong?”

“Oh, no,” he waves his hands in the air in front of them. “You guys are definitely acting different. What’s up with the gross little smiles and buying each other, what is this?, sugar cookies?”

“It’s Eiji’s favorite,” Ash replies.

“And since _when_ have you known that?!”

Eiji snorts, his cup never leaving his mouth. Yeah, his cheeks are definitely redder than usual, alright, sliding up all the way to his ears. He looks like a fucking tomato, is what Shorter thinks, and Ash is looking like an idiot staring at him with heart-shaped eyes.

“I know what my friends like.”

“No, you don’t,” he leaves his cup resting in front of him, resting his elbows on the table, staring straight into Ash’s eyes. “What’s my favorite cookie? If you answer that correctly, I’ll let it go.”

Ash gulps, Shorter notices.

Ash stares at Eiji, pleading with his eyes for help.

Eiji stares back at him with a blank expression, a thousand question marks floating above his head, his hands gripping his cup with so much strength Shorter doubts it’ll survive. He hopes Eiji already finished his drink or he’ll have to walk back to his dorm with a very suspicious stain in his crotch.

“You like the plain, chocolate chip ones,” he says.

Shorter fumes. “You got lucky today.”

“I know what my friends like,” Ash repeats, his hands not so subtly hiding under the table, his knees bumping against it in a weird way and Shorter doesn’t even have to look down to know their knees are tightly pressed together, their hands softly resting against each other. _Gross._

“Why are you acting like this, though?” He asks.

Shorter knows.

It’s one of these things you happen to catch after spending so much time around a person. You start to mimic their mannerisms, you start to understand them even when they haven’t even said a word. You start to look for and after them even when they tell you they’re fine because you know better. It’s one of those things Shorter notices because Ash is the kind of person who doesn’t fall in love easily, who tends to keep away from people because it’s easier to be alone than to maintain a façade to please people he doesn’t even care for.

Shorter knows because there’s no way he’d miss this with so many different evidences, from the way he beams then Eiji arrives to the way his eyes lose a bit of their focus when Eiji walks away; from the way he smiles a smile so, so big when their eyes meet to the way his face contorts back to his usual scary frown and tightly shut lips. Shorter knows because he couldn’t miss something as big as this.

Shorter knows.

“What do you mean?” Eiji asks him with an innocent face – the face of a liar.

“We’re acting normal,” Ash tells him with a blank expression – to hide their lies.

“No, you’re not,” he tells them.

“We are.”

He’s not stupid, but thinks that maybe it’s best if he doesn’t push them. They might be trying to hide it from him, but he knows best. Shorter knows something’s up even if they deny it, even if they try to hide the oh-so-painfully-obvious way they blush as soon as their eyes meet, the way they oh-so-obviously make it seem like an accident when their fingers brush against each other’s, when their knees bump against the table and Shorter wants to scream in agony because _how disgusting can two people get?_

He wants to scream, but he doesn’t.

Instead, he turns to Eiji and bats his eyelashes playfully as he asks: “Can I have a bite of your cookie?”

**2.**

“Are you perhaps looking for a roommate?”

The question lingers in the air for a few seconds, maybe a few minutes, and Ash is frozen in place, standing up with a heavy box in his hands. Shorter is sat on the floor, staring at his back as he patiently waits for a reply he’s not even sure it’s coming anymore. He asks again and another time after that, still staring at Ash’s frozen figure – and that’s when it dawns upon him and Shorter _knows._

Surely, he should’ve noticed as soon as he walked in, the amount of boxes being perhaps a bit too much for a single person to be moving in. He should’ve noticed the way Ash seemed happier than usual, and not only because he was finally free from home, from everything he desperately wished to be free of, but probably because there’d be someone else waiting for him here, someone that most likely wasn’t Shorter himself. He’s not sad, he’s not disappointed, but a part of him can’t help but sulk because, well, they were supposed to be the bestest bros and roomies on top of that, weren’t they? They promised each other they’d be living together once they started college and yet Shorter wasn’t the one who brought these boxes here.

Shorter knows, but he doesn’t say anything.

“When were you telling me you’d already found a roommate?”

Ash sighs, finally moving after standing still for so long. Shorter is not upset, he swears on his life, but his fists clench and his throat closes in on itself because how couldn’t it, when his best friend was thinking hiding things from him would be better than actually talking to him about his plans? Ash deserved a slap or maybe two or maybe ten. Or maybe even more than that, Shorter thinks, because not only did Ash give someone else his roommate spot but also thought he could hide it from him when Shorter was the one helping him move. Maybe it’s what they say, you can’t have both the looks and the brains – or maybe that applied to Ash only.

“Is it Eiji?” He asks.

Ash almost faints. “How’d you know?”

_How wouldn’t I know?_ , is what Shorter wants to ask.

_How wouldn’t I know when he’s all you talk about all the time?_

He’s not jealous, not really. He loves Ash and he loves Eiji and he loves that they’re an unbreakable three-man group. He loves them and they love him back – he thinks. But maybe he misses the times when it was just him and Ash and they sometimes went out for drinks and for that crappy pizza just around the corner. He misses the times when they’d get wasted and get really bad Chinese food and Shorter would spend an hour listing out all of the reasons why their Sichuan Pork sucked ass and telling him he’d cook a proper one for them when his eyes were no longer dipped in a drunken haze because of the alcohol flooding their veins.

_How wouldn’t I know?_

“I know you,” is what he says. “We’ve been friends for a long time already.”

“Yeah,” Ash nods with a soft smile. He puts a box down and walks back to where Shorter is, throwing himself on the ground, arms thrown around him. “I wasn’t sure I would even be able to leave home, but as soon as I did he asked me if I was looking for a roommate and I told him _sure, are you interested?_ , and that’s how we arranged this.”

_Lies._

Shorter knows why.

“I thought you said _we_ would share a dorm room when you finally left home, though?”

Ash looks at him with arched eyebrows, his face as white as paper. “Yeah,” he gulps. “But Eiji’s old roommate was kind of a dick so I figured I’d help him out and invite him to live with me for a little while.”

_Lies_.

He’s contradicting himself, his hands softly shaking as he rests them on top of his stomach.

Shorter almost wants to scream _how can you be any more obvious?!_ , but he doesn’t. Instead, he takes a few deep breaths, closing his eyes and thinking that maybe his friends really do think he’s stupid, maybe they really do think he’s not the kind of person to read between the lines when, in fact, that’s all he ever does. _They’re_ the ones who are stupid, Shorter thinks, because there’s no way they haven’t realized Shorter knows all about them already. It’s painfully obvious, so much it makes him want to throw up, makes him want to grab them both by their hair and yell at their faces that _I already know! No more lying! I don’t even care if you kiss in front of me right this second because I fucking know already!_ Except for the fact that he would’ve minded if they did, in fact, kiss in front of him, but that’s something he doesn’t really want to think about.

He doesn’t scream.

“What about me, then?” He says instead. “I have to live with the world’s most insufferable person, you have no idea how much I suffer every day having to hear him talking about that one stupid drama he’s into.”

“Yut-Lung doesn’t look like a bad roommate, though,” Ash chuckles. “Does his hair fall a lot?”

“We have to vacuum at least twice every day,” Shorter sighs, dramatically falling to his knees. “Why does Eiji get to have the nice dorm with you when I have to live with Yut-Lung and his fifteen-step skincare routine?!”

Ash howls with laughter, clutching his stomach when it starts to hurt. “Does he really follow that many steps? I mean. How many things are you supposed to wash your face with?”

Shorter throws his hands up in the air in agreement, eyes wide as he answers that “He runs after me sometimes with that really weird headband with animal ears and tells me he’ll make my skin smooth like his one day.”

“I’d like to see that.”

“I don’t.”

Shorter knows Ash, knows everything he proudly wears on his skin and the things he’d rather keep hidden where no one’s allowed to enter. Shorter knows everything about him, from the way he likes his coffee to how many scars he holds in his heart. He knows something’s up when the mere mention of Eiji living with him is enough to make him blush, enough to make his voice quiver, enough to make him look away in embarrassment.

Ash doesn’t tell him anything and Shorter knows better than inquire further.

He doesn’t ask, he doesn’t need to – he already knows.

**3.**

It’s an unfortunate series of events that bring him here. Here being a ridiculously crowded street filled with food stands, music and angry people bumping into him at every chance they get. Eiji is enthusiastically hopping from one place to another, dragging Ash along with him with fingers intertwined and lovestruck faces, leaving a very displeased Shorter behind, swallowed by the ever-growing crowd of people hitting him with their bags and their shoulders, stepping on his feet and he even thinks someone ended up kicking his ankles at some point.

The unfortunate events had started when he woke up this morning with a very angry Yut-Lung staring down at him, making him fall down from his bed and hit his head on the nightstand. His phone had been ringing, apparently, and that wasn’t something Yut-Lung approved of. After hearing him whining and complaining for at least ten minutes, his phone still ringing, Shorter finally managed to get rid of him and Eiji’s voice suddenly burst through the speakers asking him out to this fair-kind-of-thing he’d been wanting to go. Ash was going too, he said, and as much as he didn’t want to see his friends all around each other for at least a few more days, the promise of free food eventually made him want to get up and change his clothes.

He thought he could endure the PDA if it meant free whatever-he-wanted-to-eat. He was, oh, so painfully wrong. Eiji has his camera hanging from his neck, pointing excitedly at things Shorter doesn’t think he’s seeing while Ash nods and chuckles along with him. Love really does make people stupid, doesn’t it?, he thinks as he walks slowly behind them, hands safely tucked inside his pockets for safety. It’s cold out and Shorter doesn’t really see why they’d sacrifice the warmth of their pockets for the sake of holding each other’s hands so casually like that.

“Since when are you guys a couple?” He asks when they finally manage to get rid of the crowd.

Eiji doesn’t answer him, too busy with his camera and the scenario in front of him to even listen to Shorter’s words. Ash, on the other hand, grins and looks away from him, at Eiji, and a faint blush shows up on his cheeks when he tugs Eiji’s sleeve, when he drags his attention back to them and Shorter doesn’t think he’s ever been this annoyed before because _this is getting absolutely ridiculous._

“I’m sorry,” Eiji says, an apologetic expression on his face. “Can you repeat that?”

“You’re holding hands again,” Shorter replies.

Both of them look down at their entangled fingers, at the soft brush of their arms as their hands intertwine. It’s way too cold for this, Shorter thinks, and he still hasn’t gotten his promised free meal. It’s only when they look at each other and blush, soft, knowing smiles tugging their lips up, that Shorter loses it.

He loves his friends, he really does – he doesn’t care if they want to kiss or take each other’s clothes and quite literally eat away at everything the other has to offer, it’s none of his business or it shouldn’t have been, but it suddenly is when they seem to be creating so many scenarios in their heads from this glance alone and he wants to scream all over again, ripping them apart because _where the hell is his free food_ , he didn’t come here to watch them being obliviously obvious to the fact that they were, in fact, together but still had the nerve to deny it whenever someone asked, especially when that someone was the one person in the world they had no secrets with. They had the audacity to believe they were being smooth about it and Shorter couldn’t wait until they finally realized none of them knew how to keep secrets from him.

“You guys are gross,” he says.

“You’re just jealous because I’m not holding your hand,” Ash teases.

“Why the hell would I ever want to hold your hand?”

He snorts, shrugging. “Aren’t you scared of getting lost? Come on, I have two hands.”

Shorter considers taking his hand for a mere second, blinking down at it, his own hands itching to leave the warm comfort of his pockets. And then he halts, looking back at Ash with furrowed brows and a pout as he sees the teasing glances coming from his friend. _That jerk_ , is what he thinks. Eiji is still mindlessly looking around, seemingly oblivious to the teasing expression that blends into Ash’s expression, to the smug smirk that tugs his lips up, to the way his eyes seem mischievous and almost compelling.

He shakes his head with a huff. “I don’t know any of you,” he says. “I don’t know you.”

Walking fast, Shorter passes by them in a matter of seconds, walking faster and faster as he hears them giggling while running after him. “I don’t know you!” he yells again, picking up his pace.

“You can’t run away from us!” Eiji yells back at him, still giggling.

“Yes, I can! I’m faster than you!”

He is.

But he might have slowed down anyway so they could catch up and wrap their arms around him, pulling him into the weirdest hug in the history of hugs. He doesn’t mind – even if they shamelessly hold hands, even if they share soft, knowing glances, even if they disgustingly try to deny the obvious when Shorter already knows everything.

He knows – but he’ll wait until they’re ready to tell him.

It doesn’t make it any less annoying, though.

**4.**

Shorter doesn’t remember when _Shorter and Ash_ had become _Shorter and Ash and Eiji_ or even if it had been a gradual change or if Eiji had knocked down the door to their little world and made it his home. It doesn’t matter, not really, because _Shorter and Ash and Eiji_ is somehow warmer and a tad bit more comfortable than just _Shorter and Ash_ because Eiji has the power to make things seem simpler, cozier with a mere blink of his eyes or a wave of his hands. He has the best recipes and always knows what to say. He helps them study when things get hard, even if he has no idea what the topic is. He breaks them apart when they fight, he takes care of their wounds when things get heated and they end up in a fistfight. It’s never serious, it’s never difficult. And Eiji is there to take care of them if it ever becomes too much.

He likes being _Shorter and Ash and Eiji_. He likes his warm hugs and the soothing tone of his voice. He likes the dinners and the thousand pastries he bakes when he’s nervous. He likes his giggle and he likes how he teases Ash just as much. He likes being _Shorter and Ash and Eiji_. But maybe, he thinks, now they’re not really _Shorter and Ash and Eiji._

Now they’re _Ash and Eiji, Shorter on the side._

There are shared glances and hands brushing against each other, fingers intertwining under the table and if they weren’t in a library, Shorter would’ve screamed. There are soft, low giggles and stupid nicknames that make him sick to his stomach, bile gathering on his windpipe as it looks for a way out. When they were _Shorter and Ash_ they made fun of lovesickness and cute nicknames, they made fun of the not-so-subtle way their siblings tried to hide their relationships from them, they made fun of the very feeling they couldn’t yet understand and there’s Ash, biting his bottom lip to try to keep a giggle in when Eiji says something not even that funny or maybe Shorter just doesn’t get it.

Their textbooks are long forgotten in front of them, Eiji’s hands softly resting on top of the table as he scoots closer and closer to Ash’s face and Shorter thinks that _this is the day they’ll forget I’m here and kiss shamelessly in public_. They don’t, but it’s almost like they did, he thinks, because there’s no way those blushing cheeks and half-lidded eyes aren’t imagining all kinds of things right now.

_You’re shameless_ , he wants to say.

_You’re both disgusting_ , he wants to say.

_I’m still here, hello?!_ , he wants to say.

But he doesn’t, forcing himself to look down at his own notes again.

He doesn’t, his hands clenching into fists, his head suddenly filled with all kinds of images he’d never once wanted to see, his heart pounding inside his chest because _well, this is awkward._ It’s only when Ash gets up that Shorter gathers the courage to look up again, it’s only when Eiji asks in a sweet, sweet voice _are you going already?_ that Shorter gathers the strength to bury those thoughts somewhere deep inside his brain, somewhere he’ll never find them ever again. And he halts, mouth hanging open and eyes wide because _do they still think they’re being smooth or?_

It’s soft, the way Ash slumps a little to press his lips to Eiji’s forehead.

It’s soft, the way Eiji closes his eyes and a sweet smile tugs his lips up.

Shorter thinks he’s going to be sick.

Ash whispers something Shorter’s dumbfounded brain can’t quite comprehend and Eiji snorts before shaking his head, looking down at his hands. Ash ruffles Eiji’s hair before waving at Shorter, turning around and walking desperately slowly until he disappears between the library stacks.

“What just happened?” He asks in a choked voice once Ash is gone.

Eiji looks at him with a thousand question marks floating above his head, blinking at him as if he has no idea what Shorter is talking about. It’s infuriating how stupidly, obliviously innocent Eiji can be sometimes, he thinks, because there’s a faint pink blush on his cheeks, a tiny smile breaking his lips apart and Shorter can only think _how stupid can they be to think they could fool me like that?_

“Oh, you mean the forehead kiss?” He giggles softly. “That’s how we say goodbye to each other now. Cute, right?”

Shorter thinks he’s definitely about to throw up. “Not really.”

“Come _on,”_ Eiji rolls his eyes.

“No.”

“ _Come. On.”_

“ _Fine_ , whatever you say.”

_Disgustingly sweet_.

**5.**

Shorter Wong is a great friend.

He has a spare key to Ash’s dorm room for no particular reason, it was just there waiting for him when he helped him move. He didn’t want it, he tried to convince Ash to throw it away or give it to someone else but after a lot of convincing he agreed to take it with him. It’s an unfortunate series of events, really, everything that happened ever since that day with the coffee and the sugar cookies, ever since he had to sit through disgustingly adorable glances and knowing grins, not-so-accidental hand-holding and futile attempts of hiding what was already out in plain sight.

He has a spare key to Ash’s dorm room and that in itself is already an unfortunate event.

Having the right to barge into someone else’s territory brings a lot of responsibilities with it, sure, but it also brings a lot of things Shorter never wanted to see in the first place. Sometimes he gets a call and rushes over before he even accepts it, barging in only to see Ash sprawled across Eiji’s legs with a soft expression on his face, Eiji’s fingers slowly playing with his hair as they whisper words Shorter would rather not have heard. Sometimes he barges in just because he can, usually during dinner time, and maybe he’s seen stuff he never wanted to see but Eiji’s homemade dishes made up for it.

Thing is, Shorter Wong is a great friend who has a spare key to his friend’s dorm room and right now he wishes he didn’t.

“What are you doing?”

He’s standing by the door, frozen on the spot, every fiber in his being yelling at him that _this is stupid, you should punch them_ and he really wants to, they deserve it, but he doesn’t. His legs refuse to obey, his knees suddenly unresponsive, his muscles as rigid as rocks and there they are, softly resting on the couch, a tangled mess of limbs and sweet whispers and Shorter doesn’t even understand what’s happening anymore, he can’t even see where one ends and the other begins.

They’re cuddling.

They deny when he asks if they’re actually dating.

They share soft forehead kisses.

They walk hand-in-hand.

They kiss.

But they’re not dating.

“Since when have you been standing there?”

“Since when have you two become a single being?”

Eiji giggles, not moving from his comfortable spot between Ash’s arms, and all Ash does is look at him from the couch with a soft grin. Shorter doesn’t even know what he wants to do first, punch him or run away because it feels like he just walked in on a very intimate moment he shouldn’t have seen, he thinks, because Ash’s lips are puffy and slightly red and Eiji is hiding his face in his hands and _fuck, this isn’t okay_.

They still have the audacity to deny it when it’s already this obvious and Shorter, being the great friend he is, decides not to push them. He’s had it with the drink sharing and constant PDA. He’s had it with the hand-holding and stupid sugar cookies. He’s had it with the forehead kisses and annoying, disgustingly sweet voices. He’s had it with the fact that he still has to live with a weirdo who puts even weirder stuff on his face while he’s asleep only to let the couple do their couply things away from his eyes, and _yet._ Yet, Shorter decides not to push them into telling him what he already knows but _this…_ this is getting ridiculous.

“Are you sure you’re not trying to hide something from me?”

“Like what?” The innocence in Ash’s voice makes something go feral inside of him.

He fumes. “Oh, I don’t know… maybe the fact that you guys are together?”

“No such thing,” he replies, staring at him with hazy, lovestruck eyes.

“Your lips are red and puffy and Eiji looks like a fucking tomato,” Shorter argues.

“Eiji is way too innocent and you keep teasing us,” he shrugs. “And I have a bad habit of biting my lips when I’m nervous, you know that.”

“Since _when?!”_ His voice comes out high-pitched and weird and Shorter doesn’t even have the time to be embarrassed when Ash sighs ridiculously slow. “You’re _cuddling_ , your hands are literally under Eiji’s shirt and you’re telling me this is nothing?”

Ash looks away for a second, closing his eyes while humming softly.

“Friends can cuddle, too,” comes Eiji’s muffled voice.

_Sure_ , Shorter thinks. They’ve cuddled and held each other close when things got too hard, muffling sobs and softly stroking each other’s cheeks. They’ve cuddled and fed each other when getting out of bed was just too hard, they’ve dragged each other out of the house and they’ve pulled each other out of bad places. They cuddle sometimes, there’s nothing weird about that, sure.

But _this_ is definitely different than the cuddling they do, Shorter thinks.

“Yeah!” Ash replies with a smirk, eyes squinted as he looks back at Shorter. “Come here! We’ll make a triple sandwich.”

Shorter thinks about it.

Two pairs of gleaming eyes stare back at him and his chest hurts all of a sudden.

He thinks about it, but in the end all he says is “I’ll kill you if you dare to touch me.”

**+1.**

So it turns out they (apparently) managed to (not) hide their relationship for a whole two months.

Their confession starts with a cup of coffee and a plain chocolate chip cookie from the cafeteria. He’s been dragged out of his dorm room, from the comfort of his blankets and the peace of _finally_ having his dorm room all to himself, without Yut-Lung’s weird songs and that weird dish he always had in the mornings. Their confession starts with a cup of coffee, a plain chocolate chip cookie from the cafeteria and weird glances.

“You’re the first person we’re telling,” they say.

Shorter nods as Eiji hands him his cup.

“We’re dating,” they say.

Shorter takes a sip of his coffee and nods softly.

“We’re dating,” they repeat.

Shorter nods again.

Ash frowns. “Are you still half-asleep?”

“Why would I still be half-asleep?”

Eiji giggles, covering his mouth with his hands. Ash looks at him and then at Shorter, mouth hanging open and a frown starting to knit his eyebrows together. He laughs an incredulous laugh, shaking his head as he rests his elbows on the table, leaning closer and closer until he says: “Are you sure you understood what we said?”

“You’re dating,” Shorter replies with a shrug. Ash widens his eyes while Eiji bursts into giggles again. “You thought I didn’t know?”

“Did Eiji tell you?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Shorter isn’t awake enough for this. “Did you actually think you guys were being smooth?”

Ash blinks at him once and then twice or maybe a good ten times before his cheeks start to redden, the shade reaching all the way up to his ears. Eiji is blushing too, Shorter notices, but he’s having way too much fun teasing Ash for his reactions to care about his own skin burning. Shorter rolls his eyes at them, letting his body fall limp onto his chair, coffee long forgotten by the table, cookie probably going to waste. He’s been dragged out of the comfort of his warm blankets and the peace of having his dorm room all to himself because Ash thought he was being smooth and properly hiding the fact that he was in a relationship for two insufferable months.

“It was a secret,” he says.

“No, it wasn’t,” Shorter replies. “Not when you guys were rubbing the forehead kisses and cuddling and fucking hand-holding on my face. I’ll pay you back for this, I’m telling you. You guys are gross.”

The truth is that the PDA was annoying and he could’ve lived without the disgusting nicknames and sweet, baby voices. He could’ve lived without having a stroke for trying not to make faces when they were oh-so-painfully obvious when their pinkies _quote_ accidentally _unquote_ brushed under the table, when their knees bumped into the tables and made everything shake, looking up at him as if nothing had happened. He could’ve lived without the shared glances and knowing smiles, the faint blush on their cheeks when they thought they were being oh-so-smooth.

The truth is that he hates the fact that they didn’t even _try_ to hide this from him – or maybe they did and it just so happened that they sucked at it. “You couldn’t have hidden it from me,” he says, “I know both of you better than you know yourselves.”

Shorter Wong is a great friend.

This, however, doesn’t mean that he’s not pissed about the fact that they even thought about hiding something so important from him. It doesn’t mean he’s not about to make their lives a living hell, starting with a nice breakfast and maybe a few homemade meals and movie nights. Or maybe he could tease them about the way they’re such terrible liars, the way their cheeks redden as soon as their eyes meet. Or maybe about literally anything else, from dragging them out of their dorm at the crack of dawn to barging in uninvited in the middle of the night and _finally_ accept their offer of the three-layered sandwich under their blankets.

Shorter Wong is a great friend but now, he thinks, he'll take full advantage of the guilty expressions on their faces because, well, he deserves it after all they made him go through.

_(Now where should he start?)_

**Author's Note:**

> you're free to come yell at/with me on [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/aaIphard) (´꒳`)


End file.
